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John Siracusa wrote the definitive posting about the spatial Finder back in 2003. He returned to this issue many times in his annual macOS reviews https://ars

John Siracusa wrote the definitive posting about the spatial Finder back in 2003. He returned to this issue many times in his annual macOS reviews https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2003/04/finder/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2003/04/finder/

marcellus23 5y ago
Thank you! I was thinking of John's reviews when I wrote that comment actually, I wasn't aware he wrote a whole article on it.
Eric_WVGG 5y ago
Although I am something of a "fan" of Siracusa (enjoyed his MacOS reviews for years, and still listen to a couple of his podcasts), I think he's just dead wrong about this Finder thing. The spatial Finder was a great idea when someone's collection of files was, say, the size of the contents of a set of desk drawers or a small filing cabinet. We busted through that limit over a decade ago. The typical computer user now has file collections the size of a municipal library. I don't think anyone would agree that a city library could be organized "spatially," where one librarian remembered where they left that copy of Twilight: New Moon. Libraries need a dewey decimal system. Likewise, modern file systems are best searched via keyword search (Spotlight), and organized via a file browser. And it appears that the contemporary evolution of all this is iOS and ChromeOS, which throw in the towel on organization altogether. I personally arrived at this conclusion all the way back with the release of Windows 95, where I decided that Windows Explorer, warts and all, just worked better for a big file collection than OS 7 Finder, and only came back to Mac with the advent of OS X. I certainly appreciate the beauty and psychological theory of the spatial Finder, but it just doesn't scale.
- tambourine_man 5y ago
  >I don't think anyone would agree that a city library could be organized "spatially," Of course they can. The scales are larger than a desk, but spatial arrangement is crucial to a librarian. You don't know exactly where Twilight: New Moon is, but Literature -> Fiction is the second shelf near the door. >And it appears that the contemporary evolution of all this is iOS and ChromeOS, which throw in the towel on organization altogether. And it's a disaster.

marcellus23 5y ago

Thank you! I was thinking of John's reviews when I wrote that comment actually, I wasn't aware he wrote a whole article on it.

Eric_WVGG 5y ago

Although I am something of a "fan" of Siracusa (enjoyed his MacOS reviews for years, and still listen to a couple of his podcasts), I think he's just dead wrong about this Finder thing. The spatial Finder was a great idea when someone's collection of files was, say, the size of the contents of a set of desk drawers or a small filing cabinet. We busted through that limit over a decade ago. The typical computer user now has file collections the size of a municipal library. I don't think anyone would agree that a city library could be organized "spatially," where one librarian remembered where they left that copy of Twilight: New Moon. Libraries need a dewey decimal system. Likewise, modern file systems are best searched via keyword search (Spotlight), and organized via a file browser. And it appears that the contemporary evolution of all this is iOS and ChromeOS, which throw in the towel on organization altogether. I personally arrived at this conclusion all the way back with the release of Windows 95, where I decided that Windows Explorer, warts and all, just worked better for a big file collection than OS 7 Finder, and only came back to Mac with the advent of OS X. I certainly appreciate the beauty and psychological theory of the spatial Finder, but it just doesn't scale.

tambourine_man 5y ago
>I don't think anyone would agree that a city library could be organized "spatially," Of course they can. The scales are larger than a desk, but spatial arrangement is crucial to a librarian. You don't know exactly where Twilight: New Moon is, but Literature -> Fiction is the second shelf near the door. >And it appears that the contemporary evolution of all this is iOS and ChromeOS, which throw in the towel on organization altogether. And it's a disaster.